There have been numerous automatic pet feeders described and patented which include various levels of automation. These automatic pet feeders are useful for their stated purposes however there has never been an automated pet feeding system as the present which allows a user to monitor the operation of the pet feeding system by placing a telephone call to one's house. The prior art patents which describe various automatic pet feeders are as follows: Wing, U.S. Pat. No. 5,363,805, Sabbara, U.S. Pat. No. 5,483,923, Koepp, U.S. Pat. No. 5,370,080, Ramirez, U.S. Pat. No. 5,299,529, Mezhinsky, U.S. Pat. No. 5,230,300, Batson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,782,790, Parks, U.S. Pat. No. 4,688,520, Walker, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,422,409, Arvivu, U.S. Pat. No. 4,279,221, Betsuno, U.S. Pat. No. 4,181,097, Crippen, U.S. Pat. No. 3,742,913, and Kelsey, U.S. Pat. No. 3,665,224.
As will be shown from the description herein the present invention allows the user of the automatic pet feeder system to monitor the operation of the pet feeding and determine whether or not the pet feeding system is operating normally. The invention accomplishes this by providing both a water reservoir and food reservoir which are each in connection with a bowl while monitoring sensors in the reservoirs and bowls determine the level of food and/or water and which when necessary indicate through a monitoring circuit to a controller to actuate an inlet valve to allow either food or water to enter into the appropriate bowl. The reservoir levels are monitored with similar monitoring sensors and are further provided with level indicator lights. The control circuit includes a telephone relay disconnect with an inlet and outlet telephone line while a regular telephone answering machine is attached to an outlet line from the automatic feeder so that when an interruption in the systems's operation is encountered the telephone answering machine is disconnected through the relay alerting the user to the feeding system malfunction. A timing device is provided in line with the control circuitry and provides a means for releasing food into the reservoirs at a given time. An auxiliary power battery is provided in line with conventional AC power cord for powering the system.